


Do You Dream of Gelato and Dead Men?

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:02:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Dr. Frederick Chilton finds himself eating gelato in Florence with a man he’s never met, and oh, he’s already dead. Still they’ve got much to complain about, why does Hannibal Lecter, i.e. Dr. Fell get all the beautiful young men? Why haven’t any of them even had the decency to try to blackmail him, yet how does he reward their loyalty? Oh, yes, the good Professor Solignato is dripping blood from his head wound into the gelato, but Dr. Chilton is discovering just how much he appreciates blood and chocolate…
Relationships: Bedelia Du Maurier/Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton/Professor Solignato, Dr. Frederick Chilton/Will Graham, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 5





	Do You Dream of Gelato and Dead Men?

**Author's Note:**

> This weird dream idea came from being struck by the similarity between Professor Solignato and Dr. Chilton, a desire to have them to go out to gelato together, and pout about Hannibal Lecter, i.e. Dr. Fell. This takes place during Hannibal Season 3: The Great Red Dragon after Dr. Chilton has a little blood and chocolate with Hannibal. I don’t own Hannibal but for months it has owned me.

“Damn that Dr. Fell!” The sleek, attractive young man was almost a ghost of what Frederick Chilton once had been, only he was a professor, not a psychiatrist. Very nice beard and whiskers he wore over his chin, neatly trimmed. If only he didn’t have the ice pick stuck in his head. “It’s not enough for him to have a lovely, elegant wife, but he’s got all these beautiful young men hanging all over him and not one of them is willing to tell tales. What happened to the art of blackmail and the ragazzi?”

The professor scooped up a spoonful of chocolate gelato, never mind he was dripping blood into his dish. At Gilli’s in Florence, the staff were too courteous to comment. 

“It used to be when a young man seduced you, you could count on a blackmail notice.” The professor looked ready to cry into his dish, not looking up at Dr. Chilton. “Why, I have an entire collection of letters from various students and other ragazzi threatening me. It’s traditional. It’s indecent to abandon tradition.”

“Really?” Dr. Chilton meant for his comment to be sarcastic. It came out defensive. “I hadn’t noticed this.” 

“Really.” The professor put his spoon down and gave the other man a long, hard stare. “Money may not be his price, but believe me, Dr. Chilton, there’s always a price. The more beautiful the young man is, the higher it will be.”

Unbidden, unwelcome, the memory of Will Graham within a cage gazed at him with moist, vulnerable eyes. “Just think, Frederick. You could be the one who catches the Chesapeake Ripper after all.”

Dubious charms didn’t make Frederick immune to them, even though he should have known better than to fall for them. Especially since Will Graham’s appeal had been followed by the unwelcome, smirking visage of Abel Gideon, peering out from behind bars, yet always ready to squeeze in a taunt or an accusation, even if he couldn’t get his hands on Frederick Chilton’s actual innards. “You’ve got the right box, but you’re looking in the wrong corner.”

Abel Gideon had slipped through his fingers, only to return to Frederick in pieces, laid out in a horror tableux, a performance he’d been forced to play while the true star stood over his fallen form. “Hello, Frederick.” 

How very like an alien explorer on some tacky science fiction flick Hannibal Lecter had been, yet somehow he’d made Frederick the alien, moving all his pretty playthings to lure Dr. Frederick Chilton into playing the part. Will Graham had been Hannibal’s instrument as surely as Miriam Lass had been. 

“You know Dr. Fell took that lovely teacher’s assistant of his, the one who refused to tell tales, and bashed his head in?” The professor shook his head in disgust, dripping even more blood into his gelato. “His reward for loyalty was to become a gory spectacle, a bloody valentine for yet another young man.”

“Only the best for Will Graham.” Frederick smirked at his own words. “You do realize that man wasn’t the real Dr. Fell? He ate the real Dr. Fell.” He leaned a little closer to his companion, slowly licking the creamy sweetness off his spoon. “Tell me, did Hannibal eat you?”

“I don’t know.” The professor turned to let his distant gaze travel over Frederick’s lips, his chin. “He didn’t make a spectacle out of me.”

“We weren’t worth it.” Chilton smiled, the taste of chocolate bitter in his mouth, mingling with a taste of blood. “As far Hannibal Lecter was concerned, we didn’t measure up.”

“You did.” The professor pointed his spoon at Frederick. “He gave you his identity for a while.”

“Yes, and it fit like a suit which was much too big for me, after lying on his broad shoulders.” Chilton stabbed his own gelato like a spoon. “Giving me his identity was just one more way of letting me know I wasn’t worthy of it, or his profile, or his precious patient.”

“Ah, but at least you had those things.” The professor dipped his spoon into his gelato. “All the good doctor did to me was take. First my life and later my flat.”

“You must be Professor Solignato.” Chilton had guessed as much. “He used your flat as the stage in which he’d finally devour his beloved Will Graham, sharing him with Jack Crawford.” 

“These names mean nothing to me. Rather like this gelato.” Solignato scowled into his bowl. “My own name used to mean something, but I wonder now if it ever did.”

“Hannibal has that…humbling…effect on those unfortunate enough to cross his path.” Frederick dipped his spoon into Solignato’s bowl. “May I? I’ve found out blood tastes quite good with dark chocolate, thanks to Hannibal. Particularly human blood.”

“Be my guest,” Solignato said, gazing at the bowl with some bemusement, but perhaps his voice developed just a hint of a sultry edge. “Being dead and part of your dream, I feel like I should give you some sort of warning about what’s to come. I’m almost certain you wouldn’t listen if I did.”

“Go ahead.” Chilton tasted his spoon and met the other man’s dark eyes. “What harm can it do?”

“What harm, indeed?” Solignato sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Dr. Fell…Dr. Lecter strikes when you’re least expecting it. Be on your guard at those moments.”

“I always am,” Frederick Chilton muttered, stirring in what was once his chair, his office, awakening with the taste of blood and chocolate in his mouth. Of course it had to be from his recent meeting with Hannibal. 

Dr. Alana Bloom glared at him, standing in the doorway in his suit, giving a pointed look at the chair that was no longer his. 

Things changed. Things were already changing. Dr. Bloom ought to not to get too comfortable in charge of this institution, looking after her personal devil. Things would change for her just as they’d changed for Frederick. 

For now, he smiled as innocently as possible and got out of the chair.

**Author's Note:**

> The line “Just think, Frederick. You could be the one who catches the Chesapeake Ripper” is an approximation of what Will says in Mukozuke.
> 
> “You’ve got the right box, but you’re looking in the wrong corner” was Abel Gideon’s line in Futamono.
> 
> The scene where Hannibal confronts Frederick in his murder suit was in Yakimono. 
> 
> 'Ragazzi' means 'boys' in Italian, although it can also mean 'boyfriends' in a romantic sense.
> 
> Gilli's is a beautiful coffee house in Florence where you can also get gelato.


End file.
